The Kind That'd Take A Bullet
by No more darkness
Summary: What kind of friend is he?  Gus looked back at his friend and remembered something that happened a long time ago.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Psych, eventhough I really wish I did.

**A/N:** This is just a little that I did, because it came to me one night and just wouldn't leave me alone.

**The Kind That'd Take A Bullet**

Gus was currently walking down the boardwalk, hand in hand with Jennifer, his date. The sun was getting ready to set so it was casting a golden glow on everything that it touched. It was the perfect end to a perfect date. Gus suddenly heard a familiar laugh, that drew his attention away from his date and over onto the beach where he saw Shawn playing fetch with a golden retriever on the beach.

Well. . . an almost perfect date.

When Gus had taken Jennifer to the restaurant they had caught Shawn on the tail-end of his date. But that hadn't stopped him from stopping by their table and engaging them in a fifteen minute conversation on why pineapple was the superior fruit.

Jennifer hadn't been that impressed with Shawn, though she had the courtesy not to say anything. But now that she too had caught sight of Shawn, who was now shamelessly flirting with the dog's owner (who was not the same girl that he had been at the restaurant with), she rolled her eyes, stopped walking and turned to Gus. Then with a sigh she asked, "He's rather annoying, isn't he?"

Gus didn't have to ask who she was referring to. It was obvious.

"Sometimes," he said.

Jennifer bit the inside of her cheek. She didn't see how someone like Gus could be friends with someone like Shawn.

"What kind of friend is he?" she asked.

'Annoying, manipulative, stubborn, always had to have his way, glory hound, credit stealer.' Those were the words that came to Gus' mind.

Gus was about to open his mouth, to answer with those words, when a glint of light caught his eye. He turned to look at Shawn, again, and saw that the glint had been light reflecting off of a silver necklace that hung around his neck. Gus suddenly found himself remembering something that had happened a long time ago:

_It was the summer before their senior year, the sun was getting ready to set and two boys were walking through a nearly deserted town. Them being the only ones stupid enough to brave the heat of the day._

"_Of course I'm your friend. You're _my_ best friend," a teenage Shawn said, in an attempt to console his friend. _

"_Then why did you kiss Kathy?" Gus demanded. "You knew that I was going to ask her out."_

"_As I told you before," Shawn said, his voice annoyingly calm, "I didn't kiss her, she kissed me."_

"_And what's the difference?"_

"_The kisser."_

_Gus rolled his eyes and restrained himself from hitting his friend. Didn't Shawn care about anyone but himself?_

"_Come on," Gus mumbled._

"'_Come on' where?" Shawn asked. They weren't walking with a specific destination in mind, and if they were they wouldn't be walking down the street with all of the abandoned shops._

_Gus stopped walking and, with a look of annoyance on his face, pointed across the street to an ATM machine._

"_What?" Shawn asked._

"_I need to get some money for tomorrow. That new comic book is being released."_

"_What, so we came all the way out here to no-man's-land so that you could use an ATM that's most likely broken? Why don't you just go to the bank?"_

"_Because the bank's closed Shawn and you would know that if you had been listening to me earlier." Gus stepped into the gutter and then turned back around to his friend and said, "and I didn't come out here for the use of this ATM, but when I saw it, it jogged my memory and there's no harm in seeing if it works."_

"_Or we could just keep walking until we find one that's guarantied to work." Shawn brought two fingers up to the side of his head, closed his eyes, and thought a moment. "There's one just a few blocks from here, near that flower shop and café," he said, opening his eyes and lowering his hand._

"_I'm going to check out this one," Gus said and he started to cross the street when the sound of barking made his turn around just in time to see a large dog bounding at them. He screamed and Shawn laughed. Then Shawn got down on his knees and started to scratch the dog behind its ears as it tried to lick his face._

"_Shawn get away. That dog could be dangerous," Gus said looking around nervously, hoping to catch sight of the dog's owner, but no one was in sight._

"_Oh he's not dangerous," Shawn said to Gus, "he's just a big puppy." Then to the dog he said, "yes you are. Yes you are. You're just a big puppy." Shawn turned back to Gus, "go on," he said, "go and check the ATM. I'll stay here and play with the puppy."_

_Gus didn't have to be told twice. He hated dogs. Ever since he was chased four blocks by some old lady's poodle._

_When Gus reached the ATM he cast a glance over his shoulder to make sure that Shawn hadn't been devoured. He hadn't. But for some reason that caused some of the bitterness of his and Shawn's earlier conversation to rise. If it had been Gus who was left with the bear-sized dog he knew that Shawn wouldn't have bothered to look back to make sure he was okay._

_With those thoughts swirling in his mind he took out his bank card and shoved it into the machine. The ATM buzzed with life. Ha, so it did work. Gus looked back over at Shawn, hoping to gloat in the small victory, but Shawn wasn't even looking at him. Gus sighed and turned back to the machine to finish the transaction._

_Gus was just taking the money out of the slot when he heard a faint click and then a gravely voice say, "don't move."_

_Gus froze, but unfortunately couldn't stop himself from looking at the man out of the corner of his eye. The man was wearing a ski mask, and had a gun. Gus started to shake._

"_Give me the money," the man growled._

_With an unsteady hand Gus held out the stack of bills. The man reached out to grab the money but Gus, in all of his nervousness, let go of it too soon. As the money floated to the ground the man cursed and grabbed Gus by the collar of his shirt._

"_You did that on purpose," the man yelled. He and Gus were only inches apart. Gus could make out the design in his light-brown eyes._

"_N...n...no. I...I d...didn't," Gus stuttered._

"_Give me your wallet," the man demanded and he grabbed the black leather wallet that was in Gus's hand, but Gus did something stupid, he grabbed back. For a moment the two struggled, but the man stopped when someone shouted. Gus couldn't make out what was shouted or even who the shouter was, but a second later he found himself being thrown against the ATM machine and the masked man pointing his gun at him._

_Gus closed his eyes tight and turned his head only being vaguely aware of a dog barking and the sound of footsteps. Then he heard it. It was like an explosion. _

_Gus waited for a moment expecting the impact, the burst of pain as the bullet ripped through his body, to happen any moment. But it never came. Slowly he opened his eyes and he did not expect what he saw._

_Standing in front of him, with feet planted firmly on the ground and arms held straight out to the side in a protective manner, was Shawn. And that was all he could take in, he didn't even notice the masked man run off, all he could see was his friend. Then suddenly, as if time had stopped and had now just come back on, Shawn collapsed._

_Gus quickly stepped forward and caught his friend before he hit the ground. He laid Shawn gently on the ground. His eyes were closed and he didn't seem to be breathing._

"_Shawn," Gus said his voice soft, "Shawn, Shawn, Shawn," every time he said his friend's name his voice got louder and shriller until he was shouting. Gus looked around frantically. There had to be someone there, someone who could help. There was no one. "Someone hel–" he stopped yelling, he'd heard something._

_Gus looked down at his friend and was about to look away again when Shawn's eyes suddenly snapped open as he took in a deep gasp of breath._

_Gus's eyes widened with shock and he bent over his gasping friend. It sounded like Shawn had had the wind knocked out of him._

"_Shawn are you okay?" he asked, "how are you..." Gus trailed off as he realized, for the first time, that there was no blood. How could there be no blood?_

_Shawn followed Gus's gaze and when he also saw that he wasn't bleeding, he lifted up a shaky hand and he stuck his finger just below his shirt collar, then he hooked his finger around a dainty silver chain and pulled out a necklace from beneath his shirt._

_Gus gasped when he saw the necklace. It was small, circular, about the size of a quarter and had a gold bullet imbedded into it. _

"_That's," Gus gently took the necklace from Shawn, "that's the necklace I gave you."_

_When the two boys had turned sixteen they had given each other a special gift, one that would signify the deepness of their friendship. Shawn had given Gus an old buck-knife that had belonged to his late grandfather. And Gus had given Shawn a small necklace with a guardian angel on it, that had belonged to his grandmother (who he had happened to be very close to). When Shawn had received the necklace he had sworn to Gus that he was never going to wear it, because it was a girl's gift and because he didn't like jewelry._

"_Here, help me up," Shawn said, his voice strained, and he held his hand out to his friend. _

_Gus let go of the necklace, letting it fall back onto Shawn's chest, and he grabbed his hand and helped Shawn into a sitting position._

_Shawn gave a gasp of pain._

"_Are you okay?" Gus asked, his voice filled with worry and concern._

"_I don't know," Shawn said through gritted teeth. He then reached up and started to unbutton his shirt, and he didn't stop until the upper part of his chest was revealed._

"_Ouch," was all that Gus could manage to say._

_Shawn's chest, where the bullet had struck, was starting to bruise, but the bruise wasn't small, like the necklace or the bullet, it was big. It was a large circular bruise, about the size of a baseball._

"_Aw man. We should get you to a hospital."_

"_No," Shawn shouted._

_Gus looked at his friend, taken aback._

"_I just, I don't want my dad to know what happened," Shawn explained._

"_What?! Why?"_

"_Because then he'd give me a lecture about being irresponsible."_

"_Irresponsible? Irresponsible? How could you're dad call you irresponsible? I mean you saved me from being..." Gus couldn't finish his sentence, because of the lump that was starting to burn in his throat. "How could you're dad lecture you about being irresponsible," Gus finally got out._

"_I don't know, but he'll find away," Shawn said._

"_Well then how will we explain that bruise to your dad if he sees it?" Gus tried._

_Shawn looked down at the baseball-sized bruise and thought for a moment. "We'll say that I suck at baseball," Shawn finally said._

_Gus couldn't help but give a faint chuckle and shake his head. Even when faced with death Shawn didn't change._

"_Come on," Shawn said and he got onto his knees and started to pick up the scattered bills. Gus helped him. _

"_Why?" he asked when Shawn handed the bills to him._

" '_Cause it's your money dude," Shawn told him._

"_No, not that," Gus said, placing the money into his wallet, "why did you step in front of me. Why'd you take the bullet?"_

" '_Cause you're my friend," Shawn said, patting Gus on the shoulder as he stood up._

_Shawn then started to button up his shirt. "We speak of this to no one," Shawn said, "my reputation would totally be ruined if people knew that I wore jewelry."_

_Once his shirt was completely buttoned up, Shawn took his necklace off and inspected it closely. After a moment of staring Shawn grabbed the bullet and pried it out. He went over to a garbage can and was about to throw it away when Gus stopped him._

"_Wait," he said. _

_Shawn stopped, hand hovering over the garbage can. _

"_Can I...?" Gus looked kind of embarrassed, but he didn't have to finish his question. Shawn knew what he wanted, so he placed the bullet in his friend's hand._

_Gus gave a weak smile and Shawn gave him a large smile, as he put the necklace back around his neck and placed it under his shirt._

"_Come on," Shawn said, putting his arm around Gus's shoulder, "let's go get smoothies." Shawn started to lead his friend down the street, "you know I hear that they now have knew pineapple smoothies? Pineapple is the superior fruit. Let me tell you why." _

"Gus."

Gus snapped back to the present and looked at his date. "What?" he asked.

"What kind of friend is Shawn?" She repeated.

Gus looked back at Shawn who, noticing that it was no longer hidden, was tucking the dented silver necklace back under his shirt.

Gus draped his arm around Jennifer's shoulder and started walking. Then he turned to her and said, "he's the kind that'd take a bullet for you."

**A/N: **Well that's the end. I hope you enjoyed. And review if you liked it. :D


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